The user must read the leading comments of a
ScaLAPACK routine before invoking the routine.
The wording of the leading comments is explained
in Chapter 4. Basic terminology is explained in
the Glossary and List of Notation.

For the benefit of less experienced programmers, we provide a list of
common programming errors in calling a ScaLAPACK routine.
These errors may cause the ScaLAPACK routine to report a failure,
as described in section 7.4;
they may cause an error to be reported by the system;
or they may lead to wrong results -- see also
section 7.5.

Wrong number of arguments

Arguments in the wrong order

Argument of the wrong type (especially real and complex
arguments of the wrong precision)

Wrong dimensions for an array argument

Insufficient space in a workspace argument

Failure to assign a value to an input argument

Routine designed for homogeneous computers was executed on
a heterogeneous system (see section 6.2)

Some modern compilation systems, as well as
software tools such as the Fortran 77 syntax checker ftnchek (freely
available on netlib) and the portability checker in
Toolpack [105], can check that arguments agree in number and type;
and many compilation systems offer run-time detection
of errors such as an array element out-of-bounds or use of an
unassigned variable.